The new Spiritualized album appears to have received glowing reviews from just about everyone. I swear, I've read multiple reviews that said, "Ladies and gentlemen, the best Spritualized album in ten years." Or something like that. I sometimes wonder if these people are listening to the same album that I bought.
One thing the album has going for it is lots of anticipation. Because of an illness that nearly killed him, Jason Pierce, this album was delayed a couple of years (the last album came out in 2003), and has been named after the Accident and Emergency Ward in British hospitals. It's Pierce's "I nearly died" album. So it has a good backstory and a good pun for the title. But what about the songs?
Honestly, I can't fathom why anyone would hold this up with his best work. At first I thought I was just frustrated that he had taken a bit of a musical departure. Only two of the songs on the album, "Yeah Yeah" and "You lie you cheat" really rock. The majority of the songs display Pierce's quieter side. I don't know about you, but I never listened to Spiritualized or The Spacemen 3 for the quiet moments. Not that they've been unwelcome. But any song that puts Jason Pierce's voice front and center is starting at a disadvantage. And that describes just about every song on this album.
It's not all bad. Opener, "Sweet talk" is a genuinely affecting song that may not stand up there with "Ladies and Gentlemen We are Floating in Space" (and really, how many songs can compare to that masterpiece?), but it's not too far off, and it is one of his more memorable songs. And maybe I'm in a minority opinion, but his attempt to provide another similarly rousing song with "Soul on Fire", falls completely flat. It's the first single, and apparently a lot of people like it, but for me it does nothing. It reminds me of "Stop Your Crying" which was also the first single on Let it Come Down and one of my least favorite songs on that album (I was really worried that album would suck when I heard that song).
"Babe I'm just a fool" is a genuine musical departure for Pierce that actually works. At seven minutes, it's the longest song on the album where most of the songs fall between 2 and 4.5 minutes. The song is driven by a simple acoustic strumming that eventually gets overpowered by horns and backing vocals. I think there are backing vocals. There always are. Anyway, it's a very good song. But it's one of few on this album. Too many of the songs are too somber and flat. One song like "Death Take Your Fiddle" is cool and interesting. But then you have "Sitting on Fire" and "Borrowed your gun" and others like it. It gets old pretty fast.
So am I missing something? I haven't seen a single negative review of this album. Who's wrong here? I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it's every single critic that's reviewed this album. And it's not just because I'm self centered. Or because the only other person I've spoken with about this album was equally disappointed.
No, I'm basing this on their live show. To me, nothing reveals the strength or weakness of a musical act like their live show. And when I saw them in concert over the summer, it was a horribly disappointing experience. Well maybe that's an exaggeration. The opening performance of "You lie you cheat" was wonderfully noisy and merged into a wonderful version of "Shine a Light". They also played "Lay Back in the Sun" for the first time in 10 years (for me at least) and did a bangup job of it too. But then there was that middle section of new songs. They just didn't hold the same power as the older material. The closing medley of "Come Together" and a blissfully chaotic version of "Take me to the Other side" felt like way too little too late (well it wouldn't have been too late if they had kept playing. This was also a comparitively short set from Spiritualized).
I could blame the backup singers. They don't really fit in with Spiritualized's best live moments. But Jason Pierce is the one who decided to bring them along instead of other musicians that could make more noise. And here's why I love taking my girlfriend to shows. Because otherwise, I'd wonder if it was just my bad/tired mood that ruined the show. But when we left, she complained that the songs that weren't rock songs dragged everything down. Maybe Spaceman will go back to rocking on the next album. Or maybe he'll tour America a 2nd time like he did after Let it Come Down with a more stripped down and rock focused band. I really hope so. Because his current musical path is no more interesting than the typical Brit-rock act. Which is a shame because Spiritualized has always been one of the most revelatory and original bands that I've listened to.
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